CU Amiga Super CD-ROM 27/CU Amiga Magazine's Super CD-ROM 27 (1998)(EMAP Images)(GB)[!][issue 1998-10].iso/GoodBye/JohnKennedy/February96.lha/FAQ/FAQOCT.DOC

Text File | 1996-08-02 | 5.6 KB | 135 lines

Frequently Asked Questions


Q. I need to run PC software on my Amiga. How can I do it?
A. First make sure you really need to run PC software, and
not simply access data which originated on a PC. The Amiga
has plenty of Word Processors, Spreadsheets and image
processing programs which can deal with data stored in
typicall "PC format". The Amiga can read double-density
floppy disks in MSDOS format using CrossDOS and larger files
can be swapped with removable media or serial links.

Q. No, I really need to run PC software.
A. OK, grumpy. In that case you need a PC emulator. This is
a program which allows the Amiga to run software designed to
run on Intel and compatible processors. There are two: PC
Task (about to be released in version 4) and EmplantPC. Both
are software emulators. Hardware emulators are no longer
being manufactured or sold, as they often are more expensive
than a complete PC.


Q. Can it run Windows?
A. Yes, PC Task can run Windows. Version 3 will run Windows
3.1 and earlier, version 4 is promised to emulate 486
processors and so will run Windows95. Don't expect Windows
to run very fast: software emulators are much better at
running DOS based software.


Q. Can I use PC hardware?
A. PC Task will support most CDROM drives. In an A1200 there
is no way to fit PC hardware, although if you have an
A2000, A3000 or A4000 a piece of hardware called the
GoldenGate II card will allow some PC hardware to be
connected. The list of supported hardware includes network
cards, and I/O cards with serial, parallel and IDE
interfaces. Sound and video cards are not supported.

Q. Can I play PC games on my Amiga using an emulator?
A. Don't expect to be able to play any recent games. You
might be able to get them to load, but they will run so
slowly as to be unplayable. Even Wolfenstein 3D, the great
grandfather of PC games, is too slow on an 68040 WarpEngine
A4000.

Q. Why is it so slow?
A. It's slow because the emulation is software based. The PC
software is running on two levels: first of all, it's
executing it's own instructions but it's also running on top
of a program which emulates the PC processor and hardware.
Emulators such as PC Task are very impressive technical
achivements and they are an excellent way to use PC
software, but it's not a cheap way to get a Pentium based
computer. We hope to have a review of PC Task release 4 next
month.


Q. What about the Siamese system then?
A. It's not really an emulator. It's an Amiga linked to a
real, live PC in a separate box. The Amiga and the PC share
the same SCSI hard drive, keyboard, mouse and monitor. The
Amiga is able to trigger programs running on the PC side and
so it can appear that the Amiga is running PC software. But
it's not really.


Q. I need to run Apple software on my Amiga. How can I do it?
A. Again, check to see if you only need to access the data
rather than run original Apple applications. The Apple can
save to MSDOS format disks which the Amiga can read. There
is also Amiga software available to let it read Apple-format
floppy and hard disk drives.

Q. No, I told you, I need to run Apple software. A. You need
an emulator. There are two good ones: ShapeShifter (a
shareware program) and Emplant (a commercial product).
ShapeShifter is software only, Emplant is a
software/hardware combination. The hardware side of Emplant
is a Zorro card which offers Apple-standard interfaces such
as SCSI and networking (AppleTalk). Rencently it was
announced that Emplant was also to be released in software
only form for A1200 and maybe other Amiga models. We hope to
have a review next month. Both Apple emulations require that
you have a suitable ROM image, as this contains the core
Apple operating system software.


Q. Where can I get the ROM image?
A. The ROM image is copyright Apple, so legally you must own
the ROM in order to have the image. Normally this means
owning an Apple computer and it's a relatively
straightforward task to copy the ROM from a real Apple onto
floppy for the Amiga to load. Owning an Apple in order to
emulate an Apple is a bit daft, so many people buy the ROMs
by themselves - the Emplant hardware can make use of them.
Buying Apple ROMs by themselves isn't particularly easy.
BlitterSoft, distributors of Emplant, should be able to help
you track them down. That said, many people obtain the image
via electronic networks such as the Internet.

Q. Can I play Mac games?
A. Yes, you can. As the Apple Mac (non-PowerPC based Apples,
that is) share the same Motorola processor, Apple emulations
run at about the same speed as genuine Apples. The main
bottlenecks are disk access and graphics speed. If you
provide the emulation with an entire disk partition this
speeds up access many times, and if you use black and white
graphics only, or fit a Zorro graphics card, results are as
good as real Apples. It helps if you have at least 8Mb of
RAM in your Amiga.

Q. Can I use Mac hardware?
A. The Emplant emulation hardware includes a SCSI interface
and AppleTalk adaptors. It's the best way to use Apple
hardware. All emulators can also make use of any Amiga SCSI
interfaces which means hard drives and CDROM drives can be
used.

Q. What other computers can my Amiga emulate?
A. There are emulators for the ZXSpectrum, Amstrad CPC and
Commodore64 available amongst others. Many people use them
to play old games.

Q. What other Operating Systems can it run?
A. The Amiga can also run different operating systems. There
are two versions of the UNIX operating system available:
Linux and NetBSD. Both have are normally text-based, but
both can run an X Window system which provides a GUI.
Running UNIX makes lots of excellent utilities such as C
compilers available for free.